LOCALS’ ROME
The day off
Massimo’s Pigneto watering hole of choice is Co.So,
a bar that, with its cocktail-shaker door handles,
grabs drinkers’ attention even before they’ve
stepped across the threshold. Inside, jars of
house-crafted cinnamon syrup and cacao bitters
line the counter. A bartender strains a liquorice
mojito into in a metal flowerpot and garnishes it
with copious mint sprigs, so it looks like it’s
growing out of the container. ‘The cocktails are
great but more important is the atmosphere,’ says
Massimo. ‘I hate bars where no-one is comfortable
enough to chat.’
Co.So’s décor is determinedly playful. Among
the Pop-Art-inspired furniture – which is avail-
able for customers to buy – is a hot-red chair
shaped like a naked, kneeling figure. On one
wall a Godzilla figurine climbs a two-litre vodka
bottle; opposite, a one-way window conceals a
secret room, accessed through a faux-shower in
the bar’s toilets.
Like many Pigneto residents, Massimo finds it
hard to tear himself away from the district. One
place he considers worth venturing out for is Retro,
a diminutive interiors store in one of Rome’s
barely-big-enough-to-park-a-car squares. Inside,
curvaceous ’50s armchairs by design giants from
Eames to Ercol sit alongside period Italian
glassware and bakelite jewellery. ‘I get a lot of
design inspiration here,’ says Massimo. ‘And
they’re such nice people, they have time for you
even if you’re not buying anything.’
Mostly when Massimo strays from Pigneto you’ll
find him in Zia Rosetta, a stylised hole-in-the-wall
in Monti that gets its name from a typically Roman,
rose-shaped bun. Here, this bread has become
Italy’s answer to the hamburger or slider. Every
filling is inspired by a different rose hybrid, such
as the ‘Peggy Rockfeller’ (crudo ham, crisped
parmesan and grilled aubergine). Dressed head-to-
toe in black and with a handlebar moustache,
chef-owner Alessandro has a rugged look that is in
contrast to his food. Equally eclectic are the
clientele: two tanned, elegant women sit on silver
high stools, sipping drinks and picking at salads in
recycled cardboard boxes, while a bearded,
tattooed twenty-something eats his mini slider
standing leaning in the doorway. ‘It’s little places
like this that makes Rome exciting,’ says Massimo.
‘I love that you can have this really intense taste
experience without having a formal meal. What’s
the point in always being so serious?’
OCo.So, Via Braccio da Montone 80; cocktails from US$10.70
Oretrodesign.it; Piazza del Fico 20/21
Oziarosetta.com; Via Urbana 54; rosetta sliders from US$2.15The day job
In Pigneto, Rome’s slowly-gentrifying eastern district, street art crowds the
walls – a superhero’s head here, a mural of a giant beetle there – and bars are
concealed in unexpected places. In an innocuous-looking panini shop, neon
letters spell out ‘prime meat’ above what looks like a fridge door. Beyond
this, and an additional ruse of hanging cured hams, hides Spirito: a
sprawling speakeasy owned by Massimo Innocenti. Among scarlet leather
booths and a roulette table that doubles as the bar, Spirito serves inventive
cocktails – including the ‘Bloody Maryachi’, a tequila spin on a Bloody Mary- plus special panini, such as black-squid-ink rolls.
‘When I came to Pigneto in 2001, it was a frontier. The only bars were
smoke-stained places where old people played cards,’ says Massimo. He
moved to the neighbourhood because, after spending time in London, Paris
and Berlin, he wanted to continue living somewhere with an international
feel. ‘Now it’s the kind of place where you see artists, students and
filmmakers, alongside Senegalese immigrants in their traditional dress.’
Spirito and the panineria opened in summer 2014 just across the road
from Necci, the restaurant which Massimo took over some years earlier,
turning it into a stylish hangout for Pigneto creatives. ‘I only have one rule,’
says Massimo, ‘to create places where I can have fun myself.’
Oclub-spirito.com; cocktails from US$8.60
‘IT’S PLACES LIKE THIS
HOLE-IN-THE-WALL
SHOP THAT MAKE ROME
SO EXCITING’
MASSIMO INNOCENTI
RESTAURATEUR AND SPEAKEASY OWNER